Fluid vessel assembly with adhesive connection

ABSTRACT

A fluid vessel assembly is provided with a first vessel body with a first mating surface and a first adherent surface nonparallel with the first mating surface. The first vessel body forms a first portion of a fluid cavity. A second vessel body with a second mating surface is sized to engage the first mating surface. A second adherent surface is sized to cooperate with the first adherent surface. The second vessel body forms a second portion of the fluid cavity. An adhesive is applied to the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface to bond the first vessel body and the second vessel body together.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various embodiments relate to connections for fluid vessel assemblies such as a cooling assembly for vehicle electronics, such as an on-board vehicle battery charger.

BACKGROUND

On-board vehicle battery chargers conduct high current, which consequently transmits a high heat. In order to manage the heat of such applications, fluid cooling vessels have been provided to cool the chargers. The fluid cooling vessels often include a body with a cavity and a cover that are sealed with a gasket and screws. Silicone and ultraviolet-curing gaskets have been provided. Alternatively, the covers have been friction stir welded to the body.

SUMMARY

According to at least one embodiment, a fluid vessel assembly is provided with a first vessel body with a first mating surface and a first adherent surface nonparallel with the first mating surface. The first vessel body forms a first portion of a fluid cavity. A second vessel body with a second mating surface is sized to engage the first mating surface. A second adherent surface is sized to cooperate with the first adherent surface. The second vessel body forms a second portion of the fluid cavity. An adhesive is applied to the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface to bond the first vessel body and the second vessel body together.

According to a further embodiment, the first vessel body further defines a third adherent surface extending from and intersecting the first adherent surface.

According to an even further embodiment, the second vessel body further defines a fourth adherent surface extending from and intersecting the second adherent surface.

According to an even further embodiment, the first vessel body further defines a fifth adherent surface extending from and intersecting the third adherent surface, and generally parallel and offset from the first adherent surface.

According to an even further embodiment, the second vessel body further defines a sixth adherent surface extending from and intersecting the fourth adherent surface, and generally parallel and onset from the second adherent surface to bond with the fifth adherent surface.

According to another further embodiment, the first vessel body includes a channel formed therein about a periphery, defining the first adherent surface.

According to an even further embodiment, the second vessel body includes a peripheral projection extending from a periphery and sized to be received within the channel, defining the second adherent surface.

According to an even further embodiment, the fluid cavity has a depth of five millimeters to thirty-five millimeters. The peripheral projection has a thickness in a range of five millimeters to eight millimeters.

According to another further embodiment, the first vessel body is formed of aluminum. The second vessel body is formed of aluminum.

According to another further embodiment, the adhesive includes a structural adhesive.

According to another further embodiment, the fluid vessel assembly does not include any threaded fasteners attaching the first vessel body to the second vessel body.

According to another further embodiment, the fluid vessel assembly does not include an additional gasket in the first mating surface or in the second mating surface between the first vessel body and the second vessel body.

According to another further embodiment, the assembly withstands an internal pressure of up to five atmospheric bars.

According to another further embodiment, the assembly withstands an internal pressure of up to ten atmospheric bars.

According to another further embodiment, the assembly withstands up to two hundred thermal shocks in a range of negative forty degrees Celsius to one hundred and five degrees Celsius.

According to another further embodiment, the assembly withstands up to one thousand thermal shocks in a range of negative forty degrees Celsius to one hundred and five degrees Celsius.

According to at least another embodiment, an assembly for cooling a vehicle on-board battery charger is provided. The assembly includes a fluid vessel assembly is provided with a first vessel body with a first mating surface and a first adherent surface nonparallel with the first mating surface. The first vessel body forms a first portion of a fluid cavity. A second vessel body with a second mating surface is sized to engage the first mating surface. A second adherent surface is sized to cooperate with the first adherent surface. The second vessel body forms a second portion of the fluid cavity. An adhesive is applied to the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface to bond the first vessel body and the second vessel body together. The first vessel body defines a cooling cavity body and the second vessel body defines a cover plate.

According to at least another embodiment, a method for assembling, a fluid vessel assembly provides a first vessel body with a first mating surface and a first adherent surface nonparallel with the first mating surface. The first vessel body forms a first portion of a fluid cavity. An adhesive is disposed upon the first adherent surface. A second vessel body is with a second mating surface is sized to engage the first mating surface. A second adherent surface is sized to cooperate with the first adherent surface. The second vessel body forms a second portion of the fluid cavity. The second adherent surface is mated to the first adherent surface so that the adhesive bonds the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface together.

According to at least another embodiment, a method for assembling a fluid vessel assembly provides a first vessel body with a peripheral adherent channel. An adhesive is disposed in the channel. A second vessel body is provided with a peripheral adherent projection sized to be received within the peripheral adherent channel. The peripheral adherent projection is inserted into the peripheral adherent channel so that the adhesive bonds the peripheral adherent projection within the peripheral adherent channel.

According to at least another embodiment, a fluid vessel assembly is provided with a first vessel body with a first adherent surface. The first vessel body forms a first portion of a fluid cavity. A second vessel body with a second adherent surface is sized to cooperate with the first adherent surface. The second vessel body forms a second portion of the fluid cavity. The first adherent surface and the second adherent surface extend in a direction toward the first vessel body and the second vessel body. An adhesive is applied to the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface to bond the first vessel body and the second vessel body together.

According to at least another embodiment, a fluid vessel assembly is provided with a first vessel body with a first plurality of adherent surfaces. The first vessel body forms a first portion of a fluid cavity. A second vessel body with a second plurality of adherent surfaces is sized to cooperate with the first plurality of adherent surfaces. The second vessel body forms a second portion of the fluid cavity. An adhesive is applied to the first plurality of adherent surfaces and the second plurality of adherent surfaces to bond the first vessel body and the second vessel body together. The first plurality of adherent surfaces and the second plurality of adherent surfaces are aligned such that upon application of a fluid pressure to the fluid cavity the adhesive is primarily under shear stress.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a fluid vessel assembly;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a stress curve upon an adhesive connection according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective, view of a fluid vessel assembly according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a section view of the fluid vessel assembly of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a partial perspective section view of the fluid vessel assembly of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a partial section view of the fluid vessel assembly of FIG. 3 illustrated partially assembled;

FIG. 7 is another partial section view of the fluid vessel assembly of FIG. 3, illustrated during an intermediate assembly step; and

FIG. 8 is another partial section view of the fluid vessel assembly of FIG. 3, illustrated assembled.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.

On-board battery chargers and other electronic products for vehicles, particularly electric vehicles are liquid cooled. Optionally, liquid cooled electronics might also be applied to sealed electronic components in cavities, such as closed housing main covers, printed circuit boards, internal frames, converters, batteries, telecommunications, or any electrical device that may employ liquid cooling.

The prior art has provided cooling fluid vessels, often referred to as cold-plates. The cold-plates are often formed of aluminum and include a housing with sidewalls defining a cavity with a cover enclosing the cavity. The cover is often sealed to the housing with a gasket, such as a silicone gasket or an ultraviolet-cured gasket. Such gasketed vessel assemblies are often held together with threaded fasteners. Alternatively, the prior art has friction stir welded covers to cavity housings. However, market demands require the seals to pass enhanced specifications to increased fluid pressures, vibrations and chemical agents, while also requesting a reduction in costs.

In order to meet the increasing market demands and withstand various design applications, an application of an adhesive is employed to mount a cover to a housing of a cold-plate vessel. FIG. 1 illustrates a low-pressure vessel assembly 20 with a base 22 and a lid 24. The base 22 and the lid 24 share mating and adherent surfaces 26, 28. The mating and adherent surfaces 26, 28 are bonded by an adhesive or glue 30. However, the mating and adherent surfaces 26, 28 provide a limited mating and adherent surface area. Such a limited attachment can only withstand a limited inner pressure. Even increasing the surface area results in the glue 30 under tension or peeling stress. Testing of such interfaces resulted in seal failures after three bars of pressure and removal of the lid 24 after application of six bars.

Referring now to FIG. 2, adhesives withstand greater stresses that are applied under tension, or in shear. Likewise, minimizing vertical or peeling stress also increases the strength of the adhesively bonded joint.

FIG. 3 illustrates a fluid vessel assembly 32 that converts an adherent surface to be parallel to a stress direction upon an opening of the vessel assembly 32. The vessel assembly 32 includes a first vessel body or a main housing 34, and a second vessel body or a cover 36. The housing 34 and the cover 36 are both formed from aluminum, as is common for cold plate assemblies. The cooperation of the housing 34 and the cover 36 is illustrated in section views in FIGS. 4-8.

The housing 34 includes a base 38 with a plurality of sidewalls 40 extending from the base 38 to provide a portion of a fluid cavity 42. A mating surface 44 is provided upon the sidewalk 40 for receipt of the cover 36. A channel 46 is formed into the sidewalls 40 through the mating surface 44 to provide a plurality of adherent surfaces, namely an inner adherent surface 48, a depth adherent surface 50, and an outer adherent surface 52. The inner adherent surface 48 and the outer adherent surface 52 are parallel and offset and are both perpendicular with the mating surface 44. The depth adherent surface 50 extends between the inner adherent surface 48 and the outer adherent surface 52 and intersects the inner adherent surface 48 and the outer adherent surface 52.

The cover 36 includes a flange 54 with a mating surface 56 for contacting the mating surface 44 of the housing 34 and enclosing the cavity 42. A peripheral projection 58 extends generally perpendicular from the flange 54 and is sized to fit in the channel 46 of the housing 34. The peripheral projection 58 defines a plurality of adherent surfaces for alignment with the adherent surfaces 48, 50, 52 in the channel 46. The peripheral projection 58 provides an inner adherent surface 60 extending perpendicular from the flange 54, a distal adherent surface 62 extending outward from the inner adherent surface 60, and an intersecting outer adherent surface 64 parallel and offset from the inner adherent surface 60.

A structural adhesive 66 is disposed in the channel 46 to adhere each of the channel adherent surfaces 48, 50, 52 to the corresponding projection adherent surface 60, 62, 64. An overlapping of the adhesive 66 and the adherent surfaces 48, 50, 52, 60, 62, 64 is regulated by a volume of the adhesive 66 disposed within the channel 46. The adhesive 66 is limited to the adherent surfaces 48, 50, 52, 60, 62, 64 so that shear stress is enhanced along the inner adherent surfaces 48, 60 and the outer adherent surfaces 52, 64, while peeling stress is limited along the shortened channel depth surface 50 and the projection distal surface 62.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a pin 68 may be formed extending from the mating surface 44 of the housing 34. Likewise, an aperture 70 may be formed through the flange 54 that is sized to receive the pin 68 for alignment and placement of the cover 36, and to ensure proper thickness of the adhesive 66 along a perimeter of the vessel assembly 32.

The vessel assembly 32 provides various manufacturing advantages over the prior art. The channel 46 permits a clean process that minimizes spills and waste. A designed adhesive thickness can be obtained by controlling a volume of the adhesive 66 dispensed in the channel 46. Referring to FIG. 6, the adhesive 66 is disposed in the channel 46. In FIG. 7, the cover 36 is aligned with the housing 34 and assembled together by inserting the projection 58 into the channel 46. In FIG. 8, the adhesive 66 is distributed across the adherent surfaces 48, 50, 52, 60, 62, 64 thereby bonding the cover 36 to the housing 34.

The vessel assembly 32 also provides product advantages. A total number of components is minimized, while simplifying the assembly process. Threaded fasteners, such as screws are eliminated for bonding the cover 36 to the housing 34. Additional gaskets are also eliminated from the vessel assembly 32. Eliminating these components reduces costs of the components, and also reduces manufacturing time and costs.

Although the aluminum housing 34 and the aluminum cover 36 are described, any suitable material, such as a plastic material may be employed. Depending on the design requirements, an electrically conductive adhesive 66 may be utilized. Some suitable structural adhesives include LOCTITE® EA 9483 manufactured by Henkel Ltd., of Wood Lane End, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP2 4RQ, United Kingdom; Penloc® GTR-VT manufactured by Panacol-Elosol GmbH of Daimlerstr. 8, 61449 Steinbach, Germany; and Betamate™2090 manufactured by Dow Automotive Systems, Dow Europe GmbH, Bachtobelstrasse 3, 8810 Horgen, Switzerland.

The vessel assembly 32 complies with market demands for liquid pressure, thermomechanical stress, and chemical agent endurance. For example, the vessel assembly 32 has withstood internal pressures of up to five atmospheric bars, and up to ten atmospheric bars in various testing applications. Under various testing the adhesive 66 withstood up to two hundred thermal shocks and up to one thousand thermal shocks. The thermal shocks ranged from negative forty degrees Celsius to one hundred and five degrees Celsius.

Various vessel assembly 32 sizes and shapes may be employed for various cooling applications, which depend on shapes of components to be assembled and cooled. For example, the cavity 42 may have a depth of five to thirty-five millimeters. The channel 46 may be sized with a width from the inner adherent surface 48 to the outer adherent surface of approximately five to eight millimeters according to a suitable range of example embodiments. For this range of examples, the peripheral projection 58 may have a corresponding thickness range from the inner adherent surface 60 to the outer adherent surface 64 of three to five millimeters, and a depth from the cover mating surface 56 to the distal adherent surface 62 of eight to fifteen millimeters.

While various embodiments are described above, it is not intended that these embodiments describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation, and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may be combined to form further embodiments of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A fluid vessel assembly comprising: a first vessel body with a first mating surface and a first adherent surface nonparallel with the first mating surface, the first vessel body forming a first portion of a fluid cavity; a second vessel body with a second mating surface sized to engage the first mating surface, a second adherent surface sized to cooperate with the first adherent surface, the second vessel body forming a second portion of the fluid cavity; and an adhesive applied to the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface to bond the first vessel body and the second vessel body together.
 2. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the first vessel body further defines a third adherent surface extending from and intersecting the first adherent surface.
 3. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 2 wherein the second vessel body further defines a fourth adherent surface extending from and intersecting the second adherent surface.
 4. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 3 wherein the first vessel body further defines a fifth adherent surface extending from and intersecting the third adherent surface, and generally parallel and offset from the first adherent surface.
 5. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 4 wherein the second vessel body further defines a sixth adherent surface extending from and intersecting the fourth adherent surface, and generally parallel and offset from the second adherent surface to bond with the fifth adherent surface.
 6. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the first vessel body includes a channel formed therein about a periphery, defining the first adherent surface.
 7. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 6 wherein the second vessel body includes a peripheral projection extending from a periphery and sized to be received within the channel, defining the second adherent surface.
 8. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 7 wherein the fluid cavity has a depth of five to thirty-five millimeters; and wherein the peripheral projection has a thickness in a range of five millimeters to eight millimeters.
 9. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the first vessel body is formed of aluminum; and wherein the second vessel body is formed of aluminum.
 10. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the adhesive comprises a structural adhesive.
 11. An assembly to cool a vehicle on-board battery charger, the assembly comprising the fluid vessel assembly of claim 1, wherein the first vessel body defines a cooling cavity body and the second vessel body defines a cover plate.
 12. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the fluid vessel assembly does not comprise any threaded fasteners attaching the first vessel body to the second vessel body.
 13. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the fluid vessel assembly does not comprise an additional gasket in the first mating surface or in the second mating surface between the first vessel body and the second vessel body.
 14. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the assembly withstands an internal pressure of up to five atmospheric bars.
 15. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the assembly withstands an internal pressure of up to ten atmospheric bars.
 16. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the assembly withstands up to two hundred thermal shocks in a range of negative forty degrees Celsius to one hundred and five degrees Celsius.
 17. The fluid vessel assembly of claim 1 wherein the assembly withstands up to one thousand thermal shocks in a range of negative forty degrees Celsius to one hundred and five degrees Celsius.
 18. A method for assembling a fluid vessel assembly, the method comprising: providing the first vessel body according to claim 1; disposing the adhesive upon the first adherent surface; providing the second vessel body; and mating the second adherent surface to the first adherent surface so that the adhesive bonds the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface together.
 19. A fluid vessel assembly comprising: a first vessel body with a first adherent surface, the first vessel body forming a first portion of a fluid cavity; a second vessel body with a second adherent surface sized to cooperate with the first adherent surface, the second vessel body forming a second portion of the fluid cavity, wherein the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface extend in a direction toward the first vessel body and the second vessel body; and an adhesive applied to the first adherent surface and the second adherent surface to bond the first vessel body and the second vessel body together.
 20. A fluid vessel assembly comprising: a first vessel body with a first plurality of adherent surfaces, the first vessel body forming a first portion of a fluid cavity; a second vessel body with a second plurality of adherent surfaces sized to cooperate with the first plurality of adherent surfaces, the second vessel body forming a second portion of the fluid cavity; and an adhesive applied to the first plurality of adherent surfaces and the second plurality of adherent surfaces to bond the first vessel body and the second vessel body together; and wherein the first plurality of adherent surfaces and the second plurality of adherent surfaces are aligned such that upon application of a fluid pressure to the fluid cavity the adhesive is primarily under shear stress. 